People v. Titus CA4/1

Filed 7/26/24 P. v. Titus CA4/1 NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.

COURT OF APPEAL, FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT

DIVISION ONE

STATE OF CALIFORNIA

THE PEOPLE, D083338

Plaintiff and Respondent,

v. (Super. Ct. No. SCD125595)

BILLY LOUIS TITUS,

Defendant and Appellant.

APPEAL from an order of the Superior Court of San Diego County, Lisa R. Rodriguez, Judge. Reversed and remanded with instructions. Lindsey M. Ball, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant. Rob Bonta, Attorney General, Charles C. Ragland, Assistant Attorney General, Collette C. Cavalier, Alana Butler and Nora S. Weyl, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

MEMORANDUM OPINION Billy Louis Titus appeals the denial of his motion for resentencing

under Penal Code1 section 1172.75. Concluding the trial court’s ruling was based on an erroneous interpretation of section 1172.75, we reverse and remand for full resentencing. In 1997, when Titus was 25 years old, a jury convicted him of two counts of kidnapping during the commission of a carjacking (§ 209.5, subd. (a); counts 1 and 2) and found true two enhancement allegations that the offenses were committed against victims 65 years of age or older (§ 667.9, subd. (a)). The trial court found true that Titus’s criminal record included two prior felony convictions for which he had served prison terms. (§ 667.5, former subd. (b).) Later that year, the trial court sentenced Titus on count 1 to life with parole plus one year for the elderly victim sentencing enhancement. It imposed the same sentence on count 2 and ran it concurrently with the sentence on count 1. Turning to the two prior prison terms, the court stated, “[w]ith respect to the prison term, add of one year consecutive, I will stay those.” The abstract of judgment thus reflects that Titus’s sentence includes two prior prison term enhancements under section 667.5, former subdivision (b) (hereafter “section 667.5(b)”), each bearing the notation “S” for “stay.” Nearly 25 years later, effective January 1, 2022, section 1172.75 was added to the Penal Code by virtue of the passage of Senate Bill No. 483 (2021–2022 Reg. Sess.). (Stats. 2021, ch. 728, § 3.) Section 1172.75 provides that certain sentence enhancements “imposed prior to January 1, 2020”